Göran Wendin chosen as the manager for NordIQuEst
Göran Wendin from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, has been selected as the manager for the new NeIC project NordIQuEst. The consortium behind the Nordic-Estonian Quantum Computing e-Infrastructure Quest submitted their project proposal to NeIC’s 2021 Open call. The proposal was one of the three proposals that entered negotiations, and they were granted funding for a period of three years. The project is expected to begin in April 2022.
Wendin, a Doctor of Science in theoretical physics, works as professor at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers. Over the years, his research has involved dynamics of many-electron systems, atom-laser interaction, electron transport in nanostructures, Andreev levels in Josephson junctions, and more recently quantum computing with superconducting circuits.
Since 2000, Wendin has coordinated five major EU projects on quantum computing with superconducting devices and two EU projects on molecular electronics. He is currently a work package leader in the OpenSuperQ project in the QT-flagship and a principal investigator in the Swedish WACQT project, both with the mission to build a European superconducting quantum computer.
First to focus on quantum computing
NordIQuEst is the first NeIC project to focus on quantum computing (QC) infrastructure. The project manager is confident it will bring great new opportunities to the Nordic-Estonian region.
– NordIQuEst will establish a Nordic quantum computing ecosystem, allowing universities, industries and schools to develop their skills at the forefront of quantum technology. The project will bring quantum awareness and ability to collaborate and compete on equal terms with European and global actors, Wendin says.
Being under the NeIC umbrella, NordIQuEst will benefit by being exposed to the high-performance computing (HPC) community and the goals and needs of potential new stakeholders.
– The project’s mission will be to establish realistic views on where quantum computing will make a difference in the short, medium and long terms. Life science, pharma, communication, security and machine learning/artificial intelligence are areas of great interest. Plus, it will be fun to learn new things.
“Previous engagements are future engagements”
– My previous engagements are also my future engagements. ‘My’ current EU flagship project has recently established an EU HE Roadmap until 2029 for quantum computing with superconducting technology, which will most likely lead to large EU collaborations able to compete with the big elephants. Four NordIQuEst partners are partners in this collaboration, so NordIQuEst and the flagship projects will evolve hand-in-hand. And as NordIQuEst project manager, I will live in both worlds, Wendin describes.
Wendin says that the most important goal for him is to coach NordIQuEst to achieve its primary objective: to create a well-functioning HPC-QC ecosystem in the Nordics, allowing academia, industry and schools to explore state of the art quantum computing for research and education.
– Another goal is to make this Nordic ecosystem highly competitive on European and global levels. In the Nordics, we have all the necessary hardware, software and systems knowledge to make this a realistic goal. Over the last twenty years, Nordic groups have collaborated through EU projects developing quantum computing. Through NordIQuEst we can now build on this to establish a Nordic HPC-QC power house.